Death Comes to Bath by Catherine Lloyd

In the last book, Major Robert Kurland was having some problems with the same leg that has been giving him trouble since Waterloo. His doctor (and family friend) recommends a trip to Bath to attend the healing waters. 

While there (along with Lucy's sister Anna and Penelope Fletcher who insists on coming along), they meet Sir William Benson. He is an irascible old man who seems to like no one in his family but really strikes up a connection with Robert. Of course, he will be the one to die. Robert is one of the first to find him and recognizes that, though he has appeared to have drowned in one of the baths, the man was really murdered.

Then comes a complex mystery including the man's own sons (really only two of the three are focused on), his two stepsons, the wife who looks so much younger than him, and their personal doctor. It's another mystery for Robert and Lucy to solve and they are going to have to solve some number puzzles in order to do it.

Kurland St. Mary Mystery #6

Three stars

Follows Death Comes to the School

Followed by Death Comes to the Nursery

Borrowed as audiobook from Audible Plus Catalog

Opinions are my own

Death Comes to the School by Catherine Lloyd

Lucy and Major Kurland have been married for three years. Recently, Lucy has had some miscarriages and they are both a little tender and walking softly around each other. But that doesn't include the new school teacher. She was hired while Lucy was in her sick bed and she is... really not good. But is she connected to the poison pen letters that people have been receiving? Including one to Lucy herself?

When the teacher is killed in the classroom, no one is really upset but Lucy and Robert still want to know why it happened. Was she the author of the letters? Or was someone else trying to make trouble?

There were a few too many Big Misunderstandings at the end of this book (especially around Robert and a secondary character) but it was still enjoyable to listen to.

Kurland St. Mary Mystery, #5

Three stars

This book came out November 28, 2017

Follows Death Comes to the Fair

Followed by Death Comes to Bath

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Ghost Hunter by Jayne Castle

When Elly found out that Boone Cooper was only engaged to her because it was good for the Guild (of which he is the Aurora Springs boss), she broke off their engagement and fled her small town for the big city. When she calls him, he's quietly sure that she's ready to come back to him. It comes as a big shock when she asks for help finding a lost friend. It's even more shocking that finding her friend pulls them into a drug ring conspiracy and hunting down a man determined to kill Boone.
Decent story in the Harmony series though not one of my faves.

Ghost Hunters #3

Three stars

This book came out May 28, 2006

Follows After Glow

Followed by Silver Master

Hard copy of mine

Opinions are my own

Death Comes to the Fair by Catherine Lloyd

The fourth in a series, I did not feel like I was missing anything by not having read the first three. Miss Lucy Harrington, rector's daughter, is engaged to Major Robert Kurland. He is anxious to get married but her fancy-pants relatives are planning the wedding of the century and it's taking forever. Even the village fair is more irritating than he thought. Especially since he is the one who is supposed to judge the entries. To Lucy's dismay, he decides to buck the tradition of spreading the winners among various families and just assigns whoever he thought won. She knows that it will create resentments among the villagers, especially since Ezekiel Thurrock, the church verger, is the one to win most of the prizes. Major Kurland thinks that everyone needs to just suck it up, but when Mr. Thurrock is found dead, his head bashed in by a gargoyle, he wonders whether there are more tempers related to the fair than he thought.

There was a lot going on in this book which made it a little busy at times and the ending was... odd but overall a very readable book.

Kurland St. Mary Mystery #4

Three stars

This book came out November 29, 2016

Follows Death Comes to Kurland Hall

Followed by Death Comes to the School

Hard copy from library

Opinion are my own

Secrets of a Scottish Isle by Erica Ruth Neubauer

Jane Wunderly has infiltrated a secret cult. She's mainly on her own though her fiance, Redvers, is also on the island. This is the Golden Dawn, based on a cult that actually existed. And involved in that cult? W. B. Yeats who makes an appearance in this book. Not sure if it's actually successful though. 

 The mystery deepens when one of the initiates is killed but nobody's really sure how it was done. Add in a rival cult made up of former members and the suspect pool deepens.  

Three stars

This book comes out March 26, 2023

Follows Intrigue in Istanbul

ARC kindly provided by Kensington Books and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

A-List by D.P. Lyle

Nicole's uncle, the famous producer Charles Balfour, is in need of a PI so he calls Jake's dad. Nicole is still an employee (at least according to the ID she held on to from the last case) so she drags Jake down to New Orleans to find out what happened to Kristi Guidry, a young woman who was strangled, puportedly by A-list star Kirk Ford. They were alone in the hotel room so it seems like he is the obvious (and only) suspect. Mucking up the works are Kristi's brothers and her uncle who are searching for revenge. Can Jake and Nicole solve the mystery before Kristi's family kills Kirk?

Also included are a pair of fantastically gorgeous identical twins, Pancake (who may have found a girlfriend in the movie's makeup artist) and a fortune teller.

About the same level of insanity as the first book though this one wasn't as well put together.

Jake Longly #2

Three stars

This book came out December 12, 2017

Follows Deep Six 

Followed by Sunshine State

Borrowed as ebook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

Playful Intelligence by Anthony T. DeBenedet

It looks like this book is being re-released as it originally came out on May 1, 2018. There are no notes on this being a new edition so, if you've read this before, I don't think anything has changed.

The author dives into the idea that people with rich imaginations, who are able to re-frame their stressors, are able to go far in life. He talks about Bill B whose job was in danger of being cut every day for ten years. We look at Sheila whose life is one catastrophe after another starting from her birth. These two are just the start of example after example of people who used some form of imagination to make it through hard times.

DeBenedet argues that empathy is a part of imagination and that exercising that muscle can help us to connect with others. That putting ourselves in their shoes can help make us better at our jobs and at life. He also argues that having imagination can help us avoid "anchoring," when our thoughts are so rooted in what we've seen in the past that we can't come up for solutions what is in front of us now. 

For a book that relies on what seem to be true stories, the writing style reminded me of nothing so much as The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. 

Three stars

This book came out May 1, 2018

ARC kindly provided by Santa Monica Press and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

A Date to Die For by E.V. Hunter

Alexi Ellis is leaving London to hang out with her best friend and she's bringing along her feline with an attitude, Cosmo. She just got cut from the journalism job that she loves, her ex knowing about it and not telling her was just icing on the cake. So, now she's in a small town, living in a hotel, and wondering about a local woman who has disappeared.
While looking into it, she runs into a private investigator, Jack Maddox. The two team up to try and figure out exactly what happened to Natalie.
The characters were a little flat and I feel like there is going to be a build up to Jack and Alexi having Twu Lurv but there was something that just didn't quite fit for me. Will probably read the next book in the series but may wait a bit to do so.

The Hopgood Hall Murder Mysteries

Three stars

This book came out February 3, 2023

Followed by A Contest to Kill For

Borrowed as ebook from Kindle Unlimited

Opinions are my own

Perfect Partners by Jayne Ann Krentz

When Charlie Thornquist dies and leaves Thornquist Gear to his niece Leticia (Letty), Joel Blackstone is in a fury. While Charlie was off fishing, Joel was the one to build Thornquist Gear into a burgeoning empire.  It was understood that Charlie would be selling the company to Joel in a year (we hear about it a lot.)  And now Letty wants to use the company to reinvent herself or somesuch nonsense. A former librarian from Indiana, she's chucked the cheating fiance and has decided to throw her hand in at being a businesswoman. And wants Joel to be her mentor. But Joel is also wrestling with the seeds of revenge that are finally coming to fruition. He is about to take down Victor Copeland, the man who killed his father. 

I go back and forth on how to rate this book. Joel does seem like a jerk but, at the same time, he's spent so much time of his own building up the company. Then this librarian from Indiana (ha!) comes in and wants to use his company to change her life. Is the romance a little thin? Maybe. But the scene with Letty's ex barging into Joel's office makes me smile every time I read it.

Three stars
This book came out in 1992

Borrowed as audiobook from Audible Plus catalog

Opinions are my own

The Princess Protection Program by Alex London

Rosamund wakes up suddenly. She's been kissed! Now the dude is babbling about how he's a prince and they're going to live Happily Ever After. But she's not interested. Instead, Rosamund runs. And she ends up in the Home Educational Academy with other princesses who have run right out of their stories.
This world is odd and Rosamund is figuring out how to live in it. There are classes on things like social media, and languages, and cleaning. There is so much cleaning. It's here that Rosamund will figure out how to make friends and figure out what she really wants her life to look like. Will it be in the Academy with Verna? Or will she venture out and face the Uponatimes that might drag her back to the fairy tale?

I enjoyed the first three quarters of this book quite a bit. The last part got even a little more wacky and I was disappointed that the princess weren't more a part of their narrative thrust in overcoming the last hurdles of their life.

Three stars

This book comes out February 13, 2024

ARC kindly provided by HarperCollins Children's Books and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

Truth or Dare by Jayne Ann Krentz

I like this second book in the Whispering Springs series. 

Zoe Luce married Ethan Truax in the last book in order to be safe from being returned to the mental hospital she escaped. In this book, her fellow escapee, Arcadia Ames is the target. Her presumed-dead husband, Grant Loring, is back and wants the information about his shady business dealings that Arcadia tucked away. Zoe and Ethan have to help out Arcadia, deal with their own professional problems and try to balance their own marriages.

Whispering Springs #2

Three stars

Follows Light in Shadows

This book came out September 1, 2003

Borrowed as audiobook from Audible Plus

Opinions are my own

Board to Death by C.J. Connor

Ben Rosencrantz used to be an English professor (yes, he's heard all of the Shakespeare jokes) but he came back to Sugar House, a neighborhood of Salt Lake City, Utah, to help his father run their family's board game shop. His father is ill and can use the help but their shop has been in a slow decline for years as Amazon has taken over. Newly divorced, Ben is just in a constant state of nervousness because nothing has gone the way it should have and now he's back, still gay, in the heart of Mormon country. 

It really doesn't help that a patron shows up on his doorstep, with a knife sticking out of his chest, and promptly dies. The man had claimed to have the prototype for Monopoly which, if true, would have been worth quite a lot of money. Ben thinks that he may be a suspect in the murder so he decides to investigate on his own.

This was an okay start to a series. I don't love amateur sleuths who run into danger but Ben at least took someone along with him. There wasn't a lot of build up for the mystery other than Ben running around. The narrator also had some weird pauses that kept throwing me off but I did finish the book and I'd probably read the next one. 

A Board Game Shop Mystery #1

Three stars

This book came out August 22, 2023

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

A Fatal Illusion by Anna Lee Huber

At the end of the last book, Sebastian had gotten word that his father had been attacked. He and Kiera took their whole family, including their four-month-old daughter. He is being housed in a small village near where he was attacked, in the home of a former army doctor, so he at least has good care. 

However, when Sebastian and Kiera try to investigate, they run into a series of problems. There are few in the village who are willing to talk. They are also attacked. Someone is really working to make sure that the reasons for Lord Gage's attack aren't uncovered. And even the people who appear to be helpful aren't actually what they seemed. 

This book was fine but there was a lot going on. It may have been the time of my life and I'd like to re-read it again later because I did enjoy the character building, both the new characters and between Lord Gage and Henry, his son who was claimed by a duke.

Lady Darby Mystery #11

Three stars
This book came out June 20, 2023

Follows A Perilous Perspective

Followed by A Deceptive Composition

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own

A Witch Before Dying by Amanda M. Lee

Bay and her cousins are having to deal with dual issues, both stemming from Mrs. Little. One is that she is planning a Renaissance faire. Well, there hasn't been a lot of planning but she has brought in a troupe. It's one of their members who has been killed and Bay is worried that people will think that one of them did it. 

But trouble is also coming from the new witch, Scarlet Darksbane, that Mrs. Little has imported into town. And it will be up to Bay and her cousins as well as their significant others to figure out exactly what is going on. 

It took me a long time between picking this book up and finally finishing it. There was somehow simultaneously too much and not enough going on. It was fine but I may be nearing the end of my reading this series.

Wicked Witches of the Midwest #11

Three stars

This book came out November 5, 2017

Follows Murder Most Witchy

Followed by A Breath of Witchy Air

Borrowed as ebook from Kindle Unlimited

Opinions are my own

Solstice Spirits by Erin Johnson

Rudie Hollybrook is the only person in Holiday Haven who sees dead people. It's been a point of contention between herself and her best frenemy Hayley Swift. Except now, Hayley is also seeing ghosts. Well, ghost. It's just one ghost. But it's still scaring the bejeebers out of her. So she calls Rudie, at ridiculous hours of the morning (seriously, the lady has no manners.)
But her life view may be about to change. It may not be three separate ghosts but this particular ghost is trying to tell her something.
Not a ton of depth but a good story.

Three stars
This book came out July 1, 2021

Follows Holiday Hijinks

Followed by Merry Mischief 

Rudie last appeared in Cocoa Curses

Borrowed as ebook from Kindle Unlimited

Opinions are my own

Goodbye's a Witch by Danielle Garrett

Though there is a bit of a mystery in this story, it is more about wrapping up the series, and if you go in expecting that, you'll be fine. There is a new character who is introduced but we don't see much of her. She comes through the portal that is on the manor property. But there is a problem. There are vampire's chasing her and Holly's magic is on the fritz. 

It was a little flat and a little predictable but still a nice end to the series. 

Beechwood Harbor Magic Mystery #12

Three stars

This book came out June 15, 2021

Follows Men Love Witches

Audiobook of mine in Audible

Opinions are my own

Men Love Witches by Danielle Garrett

Now that their home is finally open as a B&B, Holly and Adam are playing host to a vampire council, one specifically arranged by their old housemate, Lacey Vaughn. But the super-secret meeting isn't going so well. First, the powers that have gathered can't agree how they should work together. Then Harmony (who was already a little jittery around vampires) sees someone skulking in the shadows and she's pretty sure it's an old foe. Then, a valuable item goes missing. All of this craziness and she's planning a wedding and meeting Adam's parents again. Well, most of the planning is going well bt she just can't seem to find a a dress and the wedding is only six weeks away.
A fun little story that I think regular readers of the series will enjoy.

Beechwood Harbor Magic Mystery #11

Three stars
This book came out October 29, 2020

Follows The Witch is Inn

Followed by Goodbye's a Witch

Audiobook of mine in Audible

Opinions are my own

Belong to the Night by Shelly Laurenston, Sherrill Quinn, Cynthia Eden

"The Wolf, The Witch, and Her Lack of Wardrobe" takes place ten months after the first story in this series. I am sorry that the series hasn't been finished yet because it is an interesting overlap of the Smith Pack with some witches.
In this town, Tully Smith is the mayor. He's laid back, takes care of his people, and walks everywhere so that he can be available to his townspeople. But he will work hard if they need protection. And Jamie Meacham, the lead of the witches is bringing trouble to his doorstep. She's been called to be a warrior for a god and that is bringing all sorts of odd creatures into town. Creatures that can be driven out by sex magic. Too bad that won't work on his father. 
Not full developed but, to be fair, it is a short story. 

Long Island Coven #2

Three stars

Follows My Kind of Town

Hard copy of mine

Opinions are my own

Murder at Half Moon Gate by Andrea Penrose

An inventor, Elihu Ashton, has been murdered and his body is stumbled over by Lord Wrexford and Sheffield. The inventors widow comes to Wrexford to ask for help. It seems Ashton has just come up with a new invention and she is anxious to find out why he has been killed before the goose laid it's golden egg. She has some suspects but Wrexford isn't sure. 

While standing over the body, Wrexford sights the two young boys he calls "the Weasels," Raven and Hawk. The two are still living with Charlotte Sloane though she is about to move houses and is very anxious as she is not sure what that will mean for either her, leaving behind the home she shared with her late husband, or the two boys who only barely seem to want to stay with her. 

While Charlotte and Wrexford are working together, they also grow closer. I was a bit startled at how fast the two got closer but that might be the product of being older, knowing yourself, and having been in some danger. I also thought the initial theories as to why Ashton was killed could have been drawn out but this was a good story over all and I'm looking forward to the next.

Wrexford & Sloane #2

Three stars

Follows Murder on Black Swan Lane

Followed by Murder at Kensington Palace

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Deep Six by D.P. Lyle

The book opens in the first person with Jake Longly, former professional baseball star, sitting outside a house doing surveillance. Too bad it's in front of his ex-wife's house and she's not really ecstatic to have him there. So she takes a golf club to his car. This is also how he meets Nicole, a screenwriter. She lets him follow her to her uncle's house so his vintage car won't be ruined in the oncoming storm. This kicks off a relationship that we see in the rest of the book as the two get sucked into the death of one of the people Jake was watching. 

This was a fast ride but I did get thrown off between the third and first person views, even within a chapter sometimes. 

Jake Longly #1

Three stars

This book came out July 5, 2016

Followed by A-List

Borrowed as ebook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own